1. Technical Field
The invention relates to a portable foldable lighting designer having a covering engaged in a foldable frame, where the covering is dimensioned smaller in a direction (B) than the width (D) of the uncovered frame in the completely unfolded position.
2. Background Information
It is known to manipulate the lighting conditions when taking photographs or shooting film for the purpose of achieving an optimal exposure result. This applies not only in the studio, but also to taking photographs and filming outdoors. Besides lighting the photography/film set with artificial light (lamps/flash), one can also use reflectors that reflect artificial light or natural sunlight for that purpose, to direct it in a controlled manner on the areas of the photography/film subject to be illuminated. Similarly, it is also known to influence the lighting conditions on the photography/film set with diffusers or reducers, which can be inserted in a controlled way in the light path of natural or artificial light.
Thus, a “lighting designer” in the sense of this invention is a device which is used for the controlled modification of the light path to influence the lighting of a photography/film set, as reflector or as diffuser, or for the controlled reduction of the light, or even to achieve combinations of these effects.
A very simply constructed, but nevertheless effective portable foldable lighting designer was developed more than 30 years ago, as described in GB 1562282, particularly for mobile use in outdoor photography/filming, but also for other application types. This element is a circular closed hoop, which can also be referred to as a frame, and which is made of a flexible material, particularly spring steel, with a fabric-like covering that is adapted to the dimensions of the hoop, and presents a kind of tunnel at its outer margin, through which the hoop is guided. The hoop made of the spring elastic material is deformable to the extent that the lighting designer can be reduced in size by twisting the hoop and folding it on top of itself, making it possible, for example, to hold it in a transport pouch.
Such lighting designers are still used frequently today; they form a simple and cost effective alternative for lighting designers that are more stable, but also more expensive, and based on frames that are made with solid rods and covered with stretched fabric.
However, the known lighting designers of the above described type frequently present the problem that the covering is not sufficiently tight, even in the unfolded state, frequently even forming folds which, for example in the application as a reflector, makes it difficult to manipulate the light in a defined way, and thus light the photography/film set. This deficiency is the result of the traction exerted by the spring steel hoop on the covering being insufficient to tighten the covering sufficiently. This problem becomes particularly pronounced with increasing age of the lighting designer, because, on the one hand, the tension force of the spring steel decreases, and, on the other hand, the textile covering is distended, and thus loses its tautness.
On this background, the problem of the invention is to improve a portable, foldable lighting designer of the type mentioned in the introduction in such a way that it keeps the covering more reliably taut in the unfolded state.